By D orman T. Shindler

Finding himself

With Until I Find You, John Irving

comes to terms with his past

Pepnnıiec’sk

FRANCE FREEMAN

OVER THE 37-YEAR span of his career convinced,” says Irving, “that William
as a novelist, bestselling author and Burns and Alice Stronach were the
Oscar-winning screenwriter, John Irving main characters in the book, and that
has often written about characters who their son, the narrator, was trying to
lose one or both parents, either to the reconstruct their lives. I didn’t realize
forces of chaos or to the vagaries of mod- that Jack Burns was the main character
ern-day relationships. “Let’s just say that of the story.”
the theme of absent parents is not a new And now that Irving has realized
one,”Irving tells The Connection during a that his curiosity about his biological
recent interview from his home in New father was more important than he
England. His first bestseller, The World previously wanted to admit, it’s easier
According to Garp,features a father who for him to admit that the fictional
dies before his son is born. Ruth Cole, JohnIrving search for his father was significant.
the heroine of A Widow for One Year, is “I’ve been inventing that character for
raised by her father when her mom leaves while she is most of my books,” says Irving. And where Jack
still quite young; John Berry and his siblings suffer the Burns and the other characters of Until I Find You
death of their mother in The Hotel New Hampshire. are concerned, art comes rather close to imitating
Homer Wells, the lovesick hero of The Cider House life. “Not autobiographically, in terms of what hap-
Rules, is an orphan in search of parents; the narrator pens in this story,” Irving says, “but, psychologically,
of A Prayer for Owen Meany is the son of a single this was much closer to home.” C
mother who refuses to reveal his father’s identity.

COOK NEILSON

But it wasn’t until Irving created the character Dorman T. Shindler, a freelancer from Missouri,
of Jack Burns, in search of his father, for his latest contributes regularly to several nationally published
novel, Until I Find You, that the recurring theme he magazines and newspapers.
had been circling hit close to home. In fact, the novel
resonated so deeply that he took it upon himself to
rewrite all 828 pages last year, changing the narration of the book from first person to third person.

It helped, says Irving, to change the book’s narrative voice and “get myself away from Jack Burns,
because I feel a lot of emotional and psychological
closeness to that character. It was easier for me to
write about him in the third person than to be him.

Signed book

I had trouble being him.”

Irving has never known his biological father,
who divorced his mother before Irving’s birth in
1942. His mother remarried, and while the author
has always stated that he lived a happy, normal life,
never obsessing over the identity of his biological
father, many of his novels seem to indicate otherwise. The mysterious past of his biological father—
indeed, his own past—Irving has said, has never
been more than grist for the creative mill, the stuff
of which bigger and better stories are made.

While all of that is certainly true, Irving has
finally come to terms with this recurring fictional
theme and his need to invent his biological father
through his fiction. Indeed, it happened while he
was in the midst of writing Until I Find You. “I was

giveaway

COSTCO HAS 10 autographed
copies of John Irving’s Until I

Find You to give away. To enter,
print your name, membership
number, address and daytime
phone number on a postcard or letter
and send it to: John Irving, The Costco
Connection, P.O. Box 34088, Seattle, WA
98124-1088; or fax it to (425) 313-6718.

No purchase is necessary. Entries
must be received or postmarked by midnight, August 1, 2005. Void where prohibited. Employees of Costco and their
families are not eligible. Winners will be
notified by mail. One entry per household.

LONGTIME Connection
readers know that I love
first-time authors. That
being said, I also relish
the works of my favorite
authors, whose words
are as cozy and comfortable as a sweater on a
cool evening. John
Irving’s Until I Find You,
this month’s Book Pick,
is just that kind of book.

A humorous andheartwarming tale, UntilI Find You is the storyof famous actor JackBurns; his relationshipwith his mother, Alice,a tattoo artist; andtheir search forJack’s father,William, a churchorganist and tattooaddict. The noveltackles emotionalissues such as a soncoming to terms witha father he neverknew, the inherentmystery in all relation-ships—even those withour parents—and how theloss of innocence affectsboth our passage intoadulthood and the memo-ries of our childhood.

Until I Find You is
available at costco.com
and in most warehouses.
Other John Irving novels
are also available in most
warehouses.—PCI